Fuerte de San Diego: Acapulco's Stone Gatekeeper

The fort above the Zócalo. Star-shaped walls, rebuilt 1616, pentagonal military geometry built to defend the Manila Galleon treasure. The Museo Histórico inside traces pre-Columbian to the 1950s Golden Age when Hollywood discovered the bay and Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor made this the most glamorous destination in the Americas.

The galleon trade galleries are the draw — navigational instruments, trade goods, porcelain that crossed 9,000 miles of Pacific in wooden ships. Walk the ramparts for the harbor view. The cannon emplacements face the same water the galleons entered, and the cruise ships and fishing boats below are the current chapter of a story that's five centuries old.

Tuesday-Sunday, nine to six. Modest admission. Worth an hour for anyone who finds the global economy's origin story more interesting than the beach. Which it is.